Lansdale zoning board grants relief for Third and Walnut apartment building

DAN SOKIL - DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA
Lansdale residents see and discuss plans for a six-story apartment building to be constructed at the corner of Third and Walnut Streets, at the start of a borough zoning hearing board meeting Tuesday night to discuss the project.

The borough’s zoning hearing board voted unanimously Tuesday night to grant relief from current parking codes, under the condition that a parking study be done and extra space be available, below the building or off site, if necessary.

“The board grants the following zoning relief: the applicant is required to provide 1.5 parking spaces per unit, with the condition that it can be reduced to no less than 1.2 parking spaces per unit during the land development process,” said zoning board solicitor Greg Gifford.

Since late 2015 various borough boards and commissions have discussed and vetted plans by local developer Ross Ziegler to build a six-story building of roughly 140 apartment units on the corner of Third and Walnut, the site that currently contains what was once the first church built in Lansdale.

“The reason we’re proposing the variances is because we don’t believe that, fully developed, this development will even utilize the parking that we’re offering, right off the bat. At a one-to-one ratio, we don’t think we’ll fill that,” said attorney Stephen Imms.

Imms, architect Mike Rosen, land planner Richard Luce and engineer Jason Smeland argued that because the apartment units will be marketed toward millennials who will ride the nearby SEPTA rail line into and out of Philadelphia, the parking requirement was well beyond what would actually be used by residents there.

“It’s because we are designing a project that, by its very nature, does not require the level of parking that the zoning ordinance requires,” Imms said.

The building would contain five stories of apartment units above a ground floor and one underground floor of parking spaces, with a second floor to be partially built and contain room for expansion later on. The team proposed the bottom floor be kept as storage space until or unless demand for parking required that it be built out, and said the conditions to trigger that build-out could be negotiated with borough officials as the project proceeds through the formal land development approval process.

Residents who live on and around the Third Street block where the apartment building will be built argued against the approval, saying parking on the street is difficult already without an additional 200 residents who may have guests, all looking for spaces on the street.

“It’s completely out of proportion with the neighborhood. It would be right up against my property, six stories, looking directly into my back yard, into my bathroom, into my bedroom,” said neighbor Vira Katolik.

Neighbors near the building said they already have trouble finding parking on the street, and think those problems would only grow worse with more new neighbors walking, riding bikes, or driving down the one-way Third Street at the same time of day.

“I think the building is awesome. I think it should be somewhere else. The thought of 200 new residents, on the corner of my block — it doesn’t belong there. It’s too big, too many people, in a small area. It’s a disaster,” said neighbor Kelly DiBetta.

The consultant team argued that similar transit-oriented projects around the country tended to have roughly 35 percent of their occupants choose to live without cars completely, and the estimated $1 million cost to completely excavate the second underground floor and prepare it for full parking would be unneeded.

“We believe this building will be unique, in that the majority of the tenants will not own cars. To build in excess of one-to-one is a waste of money,” Rosen said.

Neighbors also said they were worried that the new building could cause flooding on their properties by raising the water table in the neighborhood, and the consultants said the design of the building should cause flooding experienced now to get better, not worse.

“We’re actually alleviating that somewhat, because we’re capturing all of the rain water that hits our property, and storing it, so we’re not dumping any water off our property. Your condition should be improved,” Rosen said.

Deryk David, Vice President of the church council at nearby Lansdale United Methodist Church, said he and the church congregation like the idea of the building, but already see the impact of a tight neighborhood when the church hosts events and its parking is full.

“We want to be good neighbors, and we will have a lot more neighbors. We’re not against development, but this is a commercial organization, with some pretty deep pockets — just build the parking spaces, and we should all be fine,” David said.

Neighbor Charles Bailey of Walnut said he was also concerned about the parking situation, and said he thought the costs of adding the extra underground floor would be manageable for a project of that size. Risen said the mix of apartments within the building would be roughly 10 percent studios, 15 to 20 percent one-bedrooms, 15-20 percent one bedrooms with dens, and 25-30 percent two-bedroom apartment units.

“That’s the mix, heavier toward smaller units. We see millennials having less need for two-bedroom units, so we limit it to 20-25 percent of the two-bedrooms,” Rosen said.

Shannon DeBellis, a Third Street resident and millennial who drives to work, said she already has trouble finding places to park and making turns out of the neighborhood in the morning. Justin Weathers, owner of the Stove and Tap restaurant, said he supported the project because it could help attract new businesses like his restaurant.

“The downtown has vacancies. We’ve got to continue to push for these projects to be built, and to bring in the millennials, so we can have a growing business area. I’m for this, I think it’s very important,” he said.

Brian Renz of Station Square said he currently has trouble navigating parts of the borough in a motorized vehicle, and would like to live in a new, modern, accessible building close to the center of town.

“Where I live currently, there are a few amenities, but I don’t have everything that’s available in the downtown. I’m very impressed with the design, and this would meet my need. I’m one of those people who don’t have a car, but I wouldn’t need to drive home,” he said.

“Higher-density housing leads to more pedestrians on the street, which is the backbone of a revitalized downtown,” he said.

Ziegler said he thought the development could be used to spur similar projects along Walnut Street, and the new residents in his apartment building could be the customer base needed to help turn around vacant commercial properties downtown.

“I’m really committed to Lansdale, I’m heavily committed to Lansdale, and I really believe this is going to help turn things around,” he said.